More on this and related topics
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January 2001
If you haven't yet watched a DVD movie, chances are you soon will.
When you do, you should be aware that most DVDs offer two different
"captioning" options.
One is the television closed captions that you are already familiar
with. They are provided for people with hearing loss on DVDs, just like
they are on television and VCR tapes. You turn these on and off with
your television set.
The other option is subtitles, which are offered on most, but not all
DVDs. They are generally available in multiple languages, and are really
intended for foreign language speakers rather than people with hearing
loss. (So why do they include English subtitles on a DVD with spoken
English? Good question!) You turn these on and off with your DVD player,
not your television set.
Closed captions and subtitles have different formats, and you may
find that you prefer one over the other. But be aware that captions are
intended for people with hearing loss, while subtitles are not. This
means that captions provide information about background noises (phones
ringing, environment noises, etc.), while subtitles often do not.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
October 2005
A recent
article by Dr. Dean Edell described the efforts of optical
engineer Leanne West to make captioning more universally available in
public venues. Leanne's idea promises to provide captioning in any
public facility that has a wireless network (which will soon be all of
them!)
With
a wireless network already in place, it's a simple technical matter to
stream captions over that network. The captions would be received and
displayed by personal digital assistants (PDAs) which incoprorate the
appropriate software. With some standards in place for both transmitter
and receivers, something approaching universal captioning access
is certainly achievable.
So where
might this system be used? Virtually anyplace where people with hearing
loss have trouble understanding announcements - sporting events,
airports, hospitals, etc.
Here's
Dr. Edell's article.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
September
2006
The
National Association of the Deaf has filed a lawsuit against the
Washington Redskins to get team officials to offer closed-captioning for
the deaf and hearing-impaired at FedEx Field. The class-action suit, filed
in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, says the team is in violation of the
Americans With Disabilities Act for failing to provide captioning during
games.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2007
Manufacturers of DVD players aren't listening to
the hearing impaired. How else to explain why so few DVD players decode
closed captioning built into movie discs? Even though federal law
requires televisions with screens 13 inches or larger to include
closed-caption decoding, there is no such mandate for DVD players. . . .
. For many people, basic subtitles are enough. But there's a
distinction. Where subtitles display only the spoken word, closed
captions create a full translation of the soundtrack by adding sounds.
If a car screeches off-camera, you'll know it. If a phone rings or a
baby cries in its crib or a rooster crows, you'll know it. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
June 2007
Colleen Farrell is a 21-year-old college senior
who's been shut out of television's digital revolution. She wants to watch
her favorite shows online. She's up for downloading programs to her iPod.
She would like to watch shows on her brother's high-definition set.
There's just one problem: Ms. Farrell is one of 23 million Americans who
are deaf or hard of hearing and must rely on closed captioning. In the
rush to create new products and make television programming available
anytime, anywhere, the need for closed captioning is being overlooked.
The major broadcast networks have launched state-of-the-art online video
players -- that do not include captions. Apple has revolutionized TV
viewing by making shows available for download on iTunes -- without
captions. The television industry is spending billions to deliver
spectacular high-definition signals -- but viewing captions on HD
programming is a Byzantine process that has frustrated many viewers.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
July 2007
Editors: Court reporters and captioners are already in short supply,
and the number of practitioners graduating from training programs is on
the decline. Here's the press release from the folks at the National Court
Reporters Association.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Court cases like those surrounding Paris Hilton and Scooter Libby are
high drama for Americans, but everyday routine for court reporters. As
guardians of the spoken word recorded into text, their skills in a
litigious society are in growing demand.
But the National Court Reporters Association (NCRA) reports a downward
trend in the number of court reporters graduating this year from NCRA-certified
programs, with only about 350 graduates in 2007, when three times th at
number are needed nationwide.
"These highly trained professionals -- who are in critically short
supply -- are uniquely able to capture and convert spoken words into
information that can be read, searched and archived," says Mark Golden,
NCRA executive director and CEO. "This specialization has created new
career paths, including broadcast captioning and realtime translation
services for people who are deaf and hard-of-hearing."
According to Reesa Parker, NCRA's president, the number of schools
taking part in NCRA's certification programs and their graduates have
steadily declined over the decade. Almost 1,000 students graduated from
more than 100 NCRA-certified schools in 1996. This year, 62 certified
programs across the U.S. will graduate fewer than 350 court reporters.
Ironically, work for court reporting graduates is plentiful in
government, professional firms or freelancing, with annual earnings often
exceeding $70,000, according to an NCRA release. The federal
Telecommunications Act also boosted demand for court reporters by
mandating large increases in the numbers and types of television
broadcasts that must be closed-captioned. Last year, due to the shortage
of broadcast captioners, the deadline set by the Act was missed for
closed-captioning of all new television programs in English. Millions of
hard-of- hearing Americans were left without access to programming and
critical emergency information.
To help meet the need for court reporters, NCRA is reaching out to
potential students online. In addition, Congress is considering
competitive grants to train captioners and reporters who specialize in
realtime and Communication Access Realtime Translation. CART provides an
immediate translation of all spoken words and environmental sounds for the
deaf, hard-of-hearing or those learning English as a second language.
"The training is challenging," says NCRA President Parker. "Court
reporting cours es take two to four years. They demand a great deal of
practice and highly-developed skills of dexterity and concentration. But
for those who become guardians of the record, the rewards and sense of
making a real contribution make it all worthwhile."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August 2007
Last August, the National Association of the Deaf
filed a lawsuit on behalf of three Washington Redskins fans to get team
officials to offer closed-captioning for the deaf and hearing impaired at
FedEx Field. As another football season begins, the two sides continue to
wage an off-field battle. Steve Clark, a court stenographer, was hired by
the Washington Redskins to transcribe calls during games in response to a
lawsuit filed by three fans seeking closed-captioning at FedEx Field. The
fans in the suit say it's not enough. (Photos By Hamil R. Harris -- The
Washington Post) The fans, from Maryland, regularly attend home games and
want the Redskins and FedEx Field officials to display captioning on
scoreboards and video monitors for all announcements, and plays and
penalties called, during the game. One of the fans, Shane Feldman of
Silver Spring, said he misses parts of the game because he cannot hear
information announced on the public-address system.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August 2007
The Bush Administration apparently believes there
will be a growing demand for mobile video content. According to
noncommercial WGBH-TV Boston, which pioneered TV captioning in the 1970's,
the Department of Education has given it more than half a million dollars
to develop a system for captioning content delivered to iPods, cell phones
and other handheld devices. DOE's National Institute on Rehabilitation
Research (http://www.ed.go) has given the station a $600,000 grant over
three years.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
September 2007
As promised at Wednesday's iPod event, Apple has
released iTunes 7.4, adding support for the creation custom ringtones,
among other changes. According to notes accompanying the update, iTunes
7.4 gives you the ability to play purchased videos with closed captioning
(when available), rate your favorite albums and watch videos at a larger
size inside the iTunes window. Apple has also made a security change to
iTunes in this release to prevent maliciously crafted music files from
causing the application to quit or execute arbitrary code.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
November 2007
Adler Planetarium recently installed closed
captioning in their theaters. It is the first and only planetarium in the
world that had adapted their shows for deaf and hard of hearing patrons.
Shows at the planetarium are viewed on domed ceilings. Using a hand-held
captioning device, deaf and hard of hearing people can experience the
wonders of the universe. Inside the Starrider Theater 'Black Holes: The
Other Side of Infinity" is playing. Deaf and hard of hearing patrons can
benefit from the information using I-Caption.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2008
In a Civil Rights Directive issued January 31, 2008, the U.S.
Department of the Interior, the federal agency that runs the national park
system and other programs, announced that they will require that all
audio-visual media must be open captioned and not closed captioned. They
note also that "This in no way negates [their] responsibility to provide
assistive listening devices for program participants who are hard of
hearing."
The Directive explains that they opted for open captioning because it
"provides the most effective and efficient method of access... Even where
close captioned media is available, it has been found that much staff time
and effort is often taken to ensure that captioning is turned off and on
in a timely manner for participants with disabilities ... switches may be
easily broken or tampered with causing ... non- compliance."
For a copy of the Directive or questions, please contact Carroll Andre,
Chief, Public Civil Rights Division, Office of Civil Rights, US Dept of
the Interior, Email carroll_andre@ios.doi.gov or to file an ADA or other
civil rights complaint against the US Dept of the Interior, follow
instructions on their website.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
August 2008
Minnesota candidates using radio, television or
Web videos to get their messages out will have to back up their ads with
text. A new Minnesota law requires candidates for state-level offices to
include closed captioning. It was promoted as a way to help deaf or
hard-of-hearing voters access the political content. The requirement
applies to professionally produced ads less than two minutes long and
meant to influence voters. Transcripts of radio ads must be posted on the
candidate's Web site. Viewers have to trigger the closed-caption function
on their TV sets to see the new feature. Most of the ads this election
season will be run by candidates for U.S. Senate and the presidency. The
captioning law doesn't apply to them because they operate under federal
campaign rules. Judicial candidates are also exempt.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
September 2008
In order to make games more accessible to the
hearing impaired, Ubisoft today announced plans to include subtitles in
all internally-developed titles. The first games to support subtitles will
be Far Cry 2, Prince of Persia, and Shaun White Snowboarding. "This
commitment entails modifications to some of our game engines, as well as
the inclusion of subtitles in the conception phase of game development,"
said Ubisoft, the world's sixth largest publisher. Considered one of the
most common disabilities, hearing loss is said to affect more than 10
percent of the world's population.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December 2008
In a stirring plea on behalf of a 10-yearold deaf
girl from northern Westchester County, a 35-year-old graduate of Brooklyn
Law School today became the first deaf lawyer to argue before the United
States Supreme Court. With the help of a computerized video display
screen, the lawyer, Michael A. Chatoff, who can speak but not hear,
communicated with the nine Justices during oral arguments by reading their
questions and then speaking back to them. . . . . . It was the first time
the Court had permitted the use of special electronic equipment in the
courtroom. It did so specifically for this case, in which it must decide
whether a Westchester school district may be required by law to provide a
sign-language interpreter for Amy Rowley, a deaf fourth-grade student from
Cortlandt, N.Y., who is in the top half of her class.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January 2009
As the UA transformation cuts programming, the
Disability Resource Center is launching a new service that will provide
captioning for all in-class media including videotapes, DVDs, Web media
and podcasts. "The truth is the university has an obligation to post
things for all students," Disability Resource Center Associate Director
Carol Funckes said. "The amount of videos and media available has grown so
much, yet the technology available to the students has not caught up yet."
Today will complete the first week of the new program. In a press release
distributed Jan. 8, the DRC asked all UA instructors to only use media in
their classroom that is either closed or open captioned. Open captioning
is visible to all students while closed captioning is an option that
instructors can enable upon request. If the instructor's media is not
captioned, the DRC said it is able to create captions.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2009
Some Hollywood type once opined that "there is no
such thing as bad publicity." If that's the case, this has been a banner
week for Wash-CAP, the Washington State Communication Access Project. On
Tuesday Feb. 17, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ran what I thought was a
very nice story about our movie-captioning lawsuit. The P-I does give
readers the opportunity to comment, and boy, did they -- mostly hostile,
of course, from people who think lawyers are crooks and laws don't really
apply. [snip] Some really good ink on Saturday, though, from the Kitsap
Sun, our county-wide daily newspaper, reporting on our agreement with
Washington State Ferries.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2009
In response to an inquiry and request from the
Washington State Communication Access Project (Wash-CAP), the audio
portion of professional football in Seattle is going to become accessible
to fans with hearing losses. The plan is to provide requesting fans with a
hand-held unit that will display in captioned form the announcements from
the referees, the public-address announcements, and the audio portion of
the in-stadium entertainment, including song lyrics. Because the devices
will be portable, we'll be able to use them from any seat, and take them
with us to the concourses or the rest rooms. And because they are
individual, folks that hear won't have their experience altered by
captions on a Jumbotron or reader-board, (and we won't hear the flak from
people saying we're ruining their fun). The captions will be done in real
time by qualified captioners, possibly remote but more likely on site. The
specific system they have in mind at Qwest Field in Seattle is used at
National Football League stadiums in Denver, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia,
so it has a proven track record.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
April 2009
The Seattle Mariners and Nintendo, the Mariners'
principal owner, are teaming up to make this season's games more
accessible to fans with hearing loss. Their method -- a video gaming
device. Nintendo and the Mariners have been working for a couple of years
on the Nintendo Fan Network, which allows someone to bring a portable
Nintendo gaming console to the game, then use it during the game to access
a number of interactive features. To promote use of the network and the
purchase of the gaming devices, the Mariners are going to be loaning 150
of the devices
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
May 2009
One of our more recent entries announced that the
Seattle Mariners would try to accommodate fans with hearing loss by making
available portable video-game terminals that would display captions. A
Wash-CAP board member tested the system last week, and said it is
terrific. "The device is very good," reports board member Dean Olson. "I
was able to read it and then look up at the game. It's useful information
-- like when the stories come up to read about the players." What is being
captioned is the Mariners' radio broadcast, which is also fed into the
stadium. When the public-address announcer chimes in, that announcement
overrides the broadcast, and when that happens, the captions are of the
PA announcer.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
June 2009
He scouts the opposition's names, searching for
danger spots in the lineup. He stretches his arms and neck before games,
and like any veteran on those maddening days without his best stuff, he
finds a way to get through nine innings. He has been employed by the
Yankees and the Mets, but Cory Macchiarola has never thrown a pitch for
either team or swung a bat. But if you have watched a Yankees game in a
bar or on a treadmill the past seven years, have been to Citi Field or are
a hearing-impaired Yankees fan, you have probably seen his work. It runs
across the bottom of television screens, transmitting the text of the
words spoken by the broadcasters, or streams over the scoreboard at Citi
Field, showing every word the public-address announcer says in real time.
Macchiarola is a captioner whose meticulous work helps bring baseball and
basketball to the deaf, as well as those huffing and puffing in health
clubs or straining to follow the action in a noisy room.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
July 2009
After a year of correspondence with Wash-CAP,
Seattle Arts and Lectures is making its popular Benaroya Hall
presentations by prominent authors significantly accessible to patrons
with hearing loss by captioning five of its 2009-10 events. <snip> By
adding captions to its array of accommodations, SAL joins Seattle's
Paramount, 5th Avenue and Seattle Repertory Theatres, as well as the
Seattle Mariners and Seattle Seahawks, in making its offerings available
to those of us who have a significant hearing loss but who communicate
orally rather than through sign language. Those captioning efforts have
been instigated at the request of and in cooperation with the Washington
State Communication Access Project (Wash-CAP) in furtherance of Wash-CAP's
objective of making Washington State a national model of accessibility for
people with hearing loss.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
October 2009
Saturday marked the first day that captioning
could be found on the scoreboard inside Ohio Stadium. The Ohio State
University decided to add special captioning for all football games. The
captioning will include announcements, play descriptions and calls made by
on-field officials, 10TV reported. According to the university, it will
enhance fan experience and make game information accessible to all fans.
Fans who spoke to 10TV had mixed reviews about the captioning.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December 2009
Did you know the Disneyland Resort has several
services available for guests with visual and hearing disabilities? I am
40 percent deaf, and I didn't know about Disney's Handheld Device until
last month. I've never been able to hear all of the audio in attractions
such as the Enchanted Tiki Room, and I've often wondered if I'm missing
some of the rich storytelling that Walt Disney Imagineers carefully and
creatively incorporate into all of the attractions at the Resort. Now,
thanks to Disney's Handheld Device, I won't be missing those special
details anymore. Today, I thought I'd give you a quick rundown of this
service in case you or someone you know can benefit from this really cool
tool. Disney's Handheld Device is a palm-sized wireless device that was
developed in 2002. The device features several services, including
Assistive Listening, which provides amplified audio at 12 attractions, and
Handheld Captioning, which displays text for 14 attractions.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2010
Despite changes designed to alleviate
bar-restaurant concerns, a bill requiring closed-captions to be displayed
on televisions in public places was held up in committee Thursday. The
bill, which originally said all public television sets would have to
display captions at all times, was amended in the Senate Judicial
Proceedings Committee to say only one TV in each public area would need
captioning. The change was made after bar and restaurant owners dependent
on sports programming said they might lose business if they had to display
captioning. But lawmakers still uncertain about the bill decided they were
not ready to vote. The bill also says additional requests for captioning
by the public must be met.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
February 2010
People with hearing loss soon will have a new
option for viewing captions in movie theaters, classrooms, sports venues,
or museums-anywhere visual or multilingual access may be needed. A
wearable, wireless captioning system for consumers is being developed by
Leanne West, director of the Landmarc Research Center at the Georgia Tech
Research Institute (GTRI). "We're trying to make captioning affordable and
easy with off-the-shelf technology that can be used in multiple venues,"
said West, who is bringing the system to market this year. The system is
the product of West's lunchtime conversation 10 years ago with colleagues
who mentioned lawsuits that had been filed against movie chains by patrons
with hearing loss who sought access to these public facilities. "We
thought there had to be an optical solution to providing captioning," West
said. With a passion for problem-solving and a background in optical and
electrical engineering, West developed a prototype now in use at Mystic
Aquarium in Mystic, Conn., where users can view captions related to
various exhibits. The system debuted publicly at the Jan. 3 Dallas Cowboys
home football game as a part of the Durateq ALICE Live System. Using
standard wireless technology already available at many public facilities,
the venue's transmitter sends the captions to a consumer's
wireless-enabled personal digital assistant (PDA), smartphone, or laptop.
Also being developed is eyewear that provides captioning, similar to that
being used to watch movies on a personal DVD player; the eyewear is being
customized for use at public venues.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
October 2010
Seattle Arts and Lectures has announced that it
will caption the presentations of seven authors this year, including an
expert on affordable health care, two Pulitzer-Prize winning literary
authors and a well-known children's author who will appear in his adult
incarnation. The captioned offerings begin Tuesday, Oct. 5, at 7:30 p.m.
in Seattle's Benaroya Hall with T.R. Reid, a former journalist and radio
commentator who will talk about the dysfunctional health care system in
the United States, where we spend far more money on health care than any
other nation but rank a dismal 37th in effectiveness. Reid has spent years
examining the health-care systems of other nations that produce better
results for far less money, and will share his insights into what those
countries can teach us.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
October 2010
You pick up your remote to turn on the TV and do a
little channel-surfing. For many people with hearing loss, this is also
the time to activate the TV's closed caption (CC) function.
Closed-captioning makes otherwise inaudible speech readable: words spoken
on the nightly news, favorite sitcoms, a documentary or sporting event.
Text displayed on screen brings these programs to life for people with
hearing loss. As for movies, we've come to expect the option to see
subtitles in English as well as other languages. Clearly, people with
hearing loss aren't the only ones to benefit. Subtitles and captions aid
comprehension for everyone in noisy environments, like sports bars or
airports. The case for text on screen has been irrevocably established.
Now imagine how helpful it would be to a student
with hearing loss to be able to read everything that is spoken in a
typical classroom lecture or discussion. Believe it or not, the technology
is already available to achieve just that. Known as speech-to-text
services, this technology captures auditory information (speech) and
translates it directly into a readable format (text), in real time.
Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
March 2011
A federal appeals court upheld a ruling Friday
that requires the Washington Redskins to make game content broadcast over
the FedEx Field public address system accessible to deaf fans through
captioning — including song lyrics.
"Whatever the poetic merit of the lyrics and their
relevance to the sport of football, we agree with the district court that
the music played over the public address system during Redskins home games
is part of the football game experience … and that the [Americans with
Disabilities Act] requires full and equal access to the music lyrics,"
judges from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said in the 29-page
majority opinion.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
May 2011
A deaf University of Kentucky football season
ticket holder is suing the school, seeking to force the Wildcats to put
closed-captioning on the scoreboards at Commonwealth Stadium. The lawsuit
filed Wednesday by Charles Mitchell of Lancaster, Ky., is similar to suits
brought against Ohio State University and the NFL's Washington Redskins.
Mitchell, who sued in U.S. District Court in Lexington, is seeking an
injunction forcing the university to put captions for all game
announcements on the scoreboards of the stadium under the Americans with
Disabilities Act, which bars discrimination against people with
disabilities. The lawsuit against Ohio State resulted in a 2010 settlement
under which the school will post captions to announcements on the
Jumbotron scoreboards. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in March
upheld a decision requiring the Redskins to provide captioning.
Full Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
June 2011
Closed captions are sometimes the only means
through which individuals who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can fully
access, enjoy and experience entertainment events or broadcasts that the
rest of the world may take for granted. Unfortunately, in many cases,
these means are denied them. Sports games are just one type of event at
which deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals are too often neglected and
excluded. With all of the commentary, announcements and music projected
over loudspeakers for aural consumption, these individuals cannot
adequately enjoy the experience of a game without captioned accounts of
what others can hear. The issue of making sporting events more accessible
to fans who are deaf or hard-of-hearing has received increased attention
over the past few years.
Full Story
